Junior was solid on Sunday, but his fans and NASCAR need him to win races.

LONG POND — Even if you didn't have your binoculars focused on the Pocono Raceway stage where the drivers were introduced Sunday during the pre-race ceremonies, you knew from the sound emanating from the grandstands precisely when Dale Earnhardt Jr. was announced.

That's because Junior, as usual, received the loudest ovation before Sunday's Party in the Poconos 400 — the first of two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this summer in Monroe County.

The majority of the rest of the drivers received polite applause. Earnhardt? A roar clearly heard inside the glass walls of the press box.

And as he hopped into the golf cart after his press conference in the media center at day's end — a third-place finish requiring the media session — a couple dozen more fans straggling to their cars spotted him and yelled out "Junior!"

Greg Biffle, who exited along Earnhardt after his second-place finish, didn't hear the same screams from the fans. Not even close.

So it goes on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit. Clearly, there's one rock star here, and the brand needs him. It needs him to win races, which, in turn would create more face time on ESPN and more buzz.

Maybe that next visit to Victory Lane will come this weekend in Michigan, the scene of Earnhardt's last win a year ago, and his last win before that — in 2008.

You don't want to agitate his ever-vigilant fan base by suggesting that Junior has been more hype than actual success, but the facts clearly suggest it.

Junior has won just two races in seven years, and four, total, since 2004 when he emerged as the sport's next best thing after taking six checkered flags that year.

NASCAR's premier series isn't nearly as popular as it used to be. There were plenty of empty seats at Pocono, even on a Chamber of Commerce type of Sunday in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.

The attendance numbers aren't as strong as they once were at other places, too. They still block off whole sections of seats at Dover, for example.

It's certainly not all Junior's fault, of course, that the series has leveled off, and even dipped in interest for about a decade now.

Many other factors are in play, and at Pocono, the type of race that unfolds on such a long track can be a deterrent to spine-tingling excitement.

But it's also not a complete coincidence either that both the series as a whole and Earnhardt's career are not exactly humming at the moment.

Earnhardt has been solid this season. Sunday's effort was his fourth top-5 finish of the year and he has been in the top 10 nine times.

Wins, however, are what both NASCAR and his fans need.

More wins by the ever consistent, but ever bland Jimmie Johnson, Sunday's dominant performer, are not going to move the needle. More wins by Junior would, and he knows it.

"We want to get a win, man," he said. "I could see it right there in front of me today. Jimmie has been so fast all weekend, but I really thought we got close. If we keep getting close we are going to get one."

Earnhardt talked about momentum and confidence, but while those things are nice, they're not going to keep his merchandise moving at the dozens of souvenir stands at each track.

"We have been carrying momentum for a good solid year now," he said. "We had better finishes last year; we started the year off this year really good. We just had a lot of problems since then and just struggled to get good finishes."

Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, seems to have everything Earnhardt, and his fans, want to have. That includes the best crew and the best cars.

"They had good cars two weeks in a row," Earnhardt said, noting Johnson's controversial near-miss at Dover last week. "They win championships. They win a lot of races. He's going to have his opportunities all year long. Fortunate enough for me I get to be in the same shop as those guys. I get to lean on them and know exactly what's happening under the hood and I can learn and use that to my advantage."

Earnhardt gained two places in the standings on Sunday. He is now fourth and firmly entrenched in the "Chase," even without a win. Michigan could again provide a moment of glory.

However, he wasn't one of the four drivers to lead the race on Sunday — at least one of the 32 laps that Johnson's 48 car wasn't dominating — and there was never an inkling that he could pull out a win.

Earnhardt talked about having a good summer.

He said he likes coming to Pocono — "This area is awesome. I love coming here, I love racing here," he said.

And undoubtedly, winless or not, he will be warmly received when he returns to Long Pond Road in eight weeks for the second NASCAR event of the summer.

But for that race, already named the Gobowling.com 400, to truly sizzle, it's going to need a red-hot Earnhardt at the front of the pack, and preferably, in Victory Lane.